Greater New Orleans

Mandeville Men's 2.5 tennis team finishes second in national championship

Imagine going through life never having played a particular sport. Now, all of a sudden, a person finds themselves in their late 40s or 50s and they decide it’s time to do something fun and get a little exercise in the process.

The Mandeville Men's 2.5 team finished second in the U.S. Tennis Association's Adult National Championships held in Rancho Mirage, Calif. on Oct. 3. Team members are, from left, Blake Kennedy, Joe Roy, Ryan Fanguy, Mark Grayson and Kirk Wesson (captain). Not pictured is Hud Brand.

You say to yourself, "How about tennis? It’s an easy sport and maybe I’ll meet a few people along the way and play on a team with a group of friends and we’ll qualify for a national tournament and finish second."

That’s pretty much how it unfolded for a group of men from the Mandeville area who play out of Franco’s Athletic Club.

The 2.5 men’s team, consisting of captain Kirk Wesson, Hud Brand, Ryan Fanguy, Blake Kennedy, Joe Roy and Mark Grayson, had only been playing the game for a year, but recently made their mark on a national scale.

The unlikely journey came to a conclusion on Oct. 3 at the U.S. Tennis Association’s 2.5 Adult National Championships in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Mandeville came within one match of a national title, falling 2-1 to a team from Salt Lake City. The locals advanced to the finals with a 2-1 victory over a team from New Jersey.

There could have been a strong argument they were a team of destiny. To advance from each level — local, state, regional and national — a team has to have placed second at each level or receive a wildcard into the next round of competition. What was unusual in their journey to the national level was that they advanced via wildcard each time.

But reaching the title match helped them prove to any doubters they deserved to play for national honors.

"We were just a bunch of rag-tag guys who had only been playing for a year and then wind up going all the way to the national finals," Wesson said. "I have kids that are grown and my wife and I actually spend more time together now that we are playing, and we really enjoy it. The friendships that have developed through playing have been incredible. I want to be that 71-year-old guy out there playing every day — and winning!"